My media

Adam Bosworth summarises how he would like his various media options to work together.

These days, like everybody else, my media is increasingly on my hard disks. It is on PC’s, Mac’s, iPod’s and recorders of TV like Tivo although mine is a Time Warner supplied variant. As such, like everyone else I know, it has profoundly changed the way I view my stereo and my home entertainment in general. I don’t want to build a stereo from a stereo company. Nor do I want to buy one of these “home entertainment” PC’s. I have more PC’s at home already than I want/need. What I want is a super simple way to buy an amp and speakers (of good quality) and just plug them into a box that in turn, talks wirelessly to all of my PC’s and/or hard disks. Think of the box as a preamp, but it can be a lot simpler than old ones because the only sound source and media source is ethernet and 80211. I want my cell phone to support bluetooth to the box so that I can use it and its screen and keyboard/keypad to pick the album, artist, movie, tv show, etc to play/record and I want the box to support record like a Tivo, but on my hard disks. Why my cell phone? Because these days it has a good enough screen to show me a list of artists or albums or shows and I use one with a keyboard, but even without it, it has a keyboard and pointing and then there is just one device in my life. No more remote hell. I’m OK with the slightly painful iTunes style of DRM although it is irritating. In other words I’ll limit my personal use of the recorded media to 4 or 5 personal machines like laptops or iPods. [Adam Bosworth’s Weblog: PC’s and media revamped]